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Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess said this week at the Davos World Economic Forum, which was held virtually, that China was moving in the right direction.

Other countries should do business with China despite the problems with democracy and human rights.

When asked about Xinjiang and Hong Kong, he replied that while democracy was not making headway in China, it was much better to trade, communicate and be active with China than to pull yourself out.

His statement does not surprise me, even though Volkswagen has a special moral obligation due to its own history not to participate in such practices and to prevent them.

Last year, however, VW defended its decision to operate a plant in Xinjiang - the Chinese region where hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other minorities are known to be held in camps, women are forcibly sterilized and people are being used for forced labor.

The fact that Xinjiang has become a popular location for factories is primarily due to the warehouses;

those who produce there benefit either directly or indirectly from the inhuman conditions.

VW reportedly donated vehicles to the armed people's police.

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German companies not only benefit indirectly from forced labor and human rights violations, they also contribute to oppression.

Until 2016, the website of the German manufacturer Microdrones said: "MD4 series drones are very popular with the Chinese police." Between 2011 and 2013, the police in the Xinjiang region were a customer of Microdrones.

The export of this technology has been approved by the Federal Office for Economics and Export Control.

Germany is proud of its strict restrictions on the export of dual-use goods, that is, goods that can be used both civilly and militarily;

therefore the permission in this case is strange.

And an example of the fact that the German government should be left in the dark about the "final destination" of Microdrones technology.

When considering trade with China one should always keep in mind that this is an authoritarian regime that is cracked down on every day.

Anyone who pretends not to understand these circumstances is lying to themselves.

In connection with the use of drones in Xinjiang, even seemingly harmless border patrols pose a major problem - given the background against which they take place.

Indeed, part of the repression consists of forcibly detaining people where they are controlled and monitored in various ways.

And drones are tools the use of which prevents them from settling in Southeast Asia.

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The argument that “we don't know how our products are used” falls short of the line of defense.

You don't need an intelligence agency to see what is happening to civil society in China and Hong Kong.

Just as unconvincing is: “China can now produce everything itself and is not dependent on German products and technologies.

In the end, export controls that damage German economic interests really don't help anyone ”.

If China can manufacture everything itself, it won't import anything from Germany.

It's a self-destructive argument.

This text is from WELT AM SONNTAG.

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Source: Welt am Sonntag